State unemployment rates, January 2007 to January 2017

March 17, 2017

Unemployment rates were significantly lower in January 2017 in 5 states and stable in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Six states had notable jobless rate decreases from a year earlier and 44 states and the District had no significant change. The national unemployment rate was 4.8 percent in January, little changed from that of both December 2016 and January 2016.

New Hampshire had the lowest unemployment rate in January, 2.7 percent, closely followed by Hawaii, 2.8 percent, and Colorado and South Dakota, 2.9 percent each. The rates in both Arkansas (3.8 percent) and Oregon (4.3 percent) set new lows for these data series (all of which begin in 1976.) New Mexico had the highest jobless rate, 6.7 percent, followed by Alaska and Alabama, 6.5 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.

Six states had statistically significant unemployment rate changes from January 2016, all of which were decreases. The largest of these declines occurred in Nevada (−1.2 percentage points).